Dairy Cow Slaughter Continues

The United States Department of Agriculture reported that 269,000 dairy cows were sent to slaughter in November, up 16,000 head over November of 2011. That’s a 6.3% increase.

Some 285,000 cows were sent to slaughter in October. But there were 23 working days in October, compared to just 21 days in November. So the rate per day was still 400 some cows higher in November.

Year-to-date, culling is running 191,000 head higher than 2011, or 7.2%.

Milk cow numbers on U.S. farms are running 20,000 head lower than a year ago, according to USDA’s milk production report released Wednesday. Nevertheless, milk production was actually up 1% over a year ago due to more milk per cow.